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Sess-Superstreng is the first studio recorded release in a couple of years from the honourable Knytes of the realm of drone by Washington DC's Mikroknytes. Released on this occasion through Commie 64's new label Kavekaveti it bares all the hallmarks of the sound they have honed over the years which is both gentle one minute and terrifying the next. Drone on an industrial scale one might say but sublimely beautiful. Sculpting their material from studio improvisations you really get a sense of sounds in continual composition. Interestingly they have also gone for a greater use of field recordings, which combined is what gives this album the coherence of a whole that is a sonic journey 'par excellence'.
Tracks such as 'Lissy Bleed & Avereeder' (where do they get these track titles?) are a diverse mixture of processed, moody at times musique concrete and static granular synth undulations with portamento slips and gauges that pick you up and drop you off sonic cliffs in a whirlpool of frequencies. On track 2, 'Avereeder' a solo plucked violin reverberates into fed-back rhythms filtered and transformed through the Knytes trademark processing with increasing and decreasing cardiac like LFO rates to match the intensity. 'Alvino Linter' and 'Oviotros' would have to be my favourites and on the first listen I actually thought they were one track. They certainly compliment each other. 'Alvino Linter' starts with a combination of gentle bowed violin reverberating in pools of grainy modular synth drones accompanied by faint conversational vocal snatch's segwaying into 'Oviotros' with curious spiky plucks and high ethereal vocalisations that cushion you in a loved up web of sonic wool. Again as throughout, their signature of gentle to hard and soft to spiky delivers a wide spectrum of dynamics that never makes this EP feel too long which is sometimes the case with drone based recordings.
Mormunizer finishes the album with multi layered contrapuntal violin phrases giving way to dissonant high pitched tones over driven with mechanised field recordings and synth drones. There is a distinct whiff of 80's industrial here as synths hint of circling aircraft and the metallic shearing of blades. Enter a final foreboding drone underpinned by a sombre background field recording in a salutary wave to melancholy and the knowledge that it is all is not well with the world. A perfect soundtrack to our current state of uncertainty. This track is also featured on our new net release Explorations in Sound, Selection 2.
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